NLG Resolves to Defend the Democratic Rights of Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Dan Wilson, NLG Membership Coordinator
August 06, 2003
Through its Executive Committee, the National Lawyers Guild recently added its name to a growing list of signatories to the international campaign to remove Professor Jose Maria Sison from the European Union (EU)'s list of 'terrorists'. Previous signatories to the campaign include Lynne Stewart, Ramsey Clark, Leslie Cagan, C. Clark Kissinger, Michael Ratner, Michael Steven Smith, George Caffentzis, Pat Levasseur, Luis Francia, Tod Ensign, and the Guild's Chicago chapter.
On 28 October 2002, the Council of the European Union included Prof. Jose Maria Sison and the New People's Army (NPA) of the Philippines to its list of "terrorist" persons, groups and entities. This decision was taken by written procedure, without discussion or due process, and without citing any proofs whatsoever. It was arbitrary, undemocratic and unjust.
With this decision, the European Union toes the line of the United States government. On 9 August 2002, the US State Department listed the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People's Army (NPA) as 'foreign terrorist organizations,' asking other governments to do the same. On 12 August 2002, the US Treasury Department listed Jose Maria Sison as a 'terrorist' whose assets must be frozen.
The US government is targeting Prof. Sison because he has been a leading figure of the Philippine national democratic revolution for almost forty years. He was one of the pioneers who revived the anti-imperialist movement in the Philippines in the early 1960s. He reestablished the CPP in 1968. For nine years, he was dictator Marcos' most prominent political prisoner.
Today, Prof. Sison is living in the Netherlands as a political refugee under the protection of the Refugee Convention and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. He is the chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP, the revolutionary alliance to which the CPP and NPA belong) in the peace negotiations with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP). These negotiations have been facilitated by the Norwegian, Dutch and Belgian governments, and the European Parliament has endorsed them through several resolutions.
We join with the worldwide campaign in demanding of the European Union and its member states:
- the removal of Prof. Jose Maria Sison and the New People's Army from the list of the Council Common Position 2002/847/CFSP and Council Decision 2002/848/EC;
- full respect for the protection of Prof. Sison as a refugee under the relevant international conventions;
- encouragement to the resumption of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations in accordance with the Hague Joint Declaration of 1992 as the framework agreement and respect for the 1997 and 1999 resolutions of the European Parliament supporting the aforesaid peace negotiations; and
- the refusal of any possible demand for his extradition.
We demand that the European Union and its member states refrain from any legislation or action that may hinder the legitimate political activities of organizations and individuals.
The worldwide campaign supports the procedure introduced before the Court of the European Community in Luxembourg by Prof. Sison and his international team of human rights lawyers to redress his grievances.
We encourage Guild members and friends to:
- sign the petition at www.petitiononline.com/jms
- inform yourself further by checking out www.defendsison.be
- offer legal assistance (contact: [email protected])
- help organize and/or participate in a Guild delegation to Europe for Prof. Sison's next hearing (contact NLG Membership Coordinator Dan Wilson at [email protected])
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